American Jewry had its eyes on Chicago today as one of the bitterest political campaigns since the days of Mayor Thompson came to a close, with anti-Semitism superseding all other factors as the chief issue of the contest for the mayoralty which will be decided at the polls on Tuesday.
Running on a platform that has been weighted down with features described by opponents and disinterested observers as kin to Hitlerism, Newton Jenkins, mayoralty candidate on a third-party ticket, tonight reiterated his frequently made denials that he is waging an anti-Semitic campaign. In his denials he charged that Paul H. Douglas, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, had “engineered” the charges that he was anti-Semitic in behalf of Mayor Edward J. Kelly.
ACCUSES JEWISH CHARITIES
Political observers predicted today that Jenkins will not receive more than 75,000 votes in the election.
Mr. Jenkins issued a statement here in which he accuses the Jewish Charities of Chicago of being the first to link his name with Hitler, at a banquet on March 18.
“It was a singular thing,” Mr. Jenkins said, “with race hatreds flaming high the world over, that the Jews themselves, in a great charity banquet, would project an attack of this kind into a political campaign. It is even more singular that the attack should be directed against one who has over a lifetime been outstanding in championing the rights of minorities including Jews.”
The reason for this attack, Mr. Jenkins explains, is “that in our city a small band of crooked Jews who have been caught red-handed in their villainy are trying to hide their own misconduct by yelling ‘Hitler’ at those who dare to expose their perfidy and to stand out against their own civic misconduct.”
WANTS SHOWDOWN
Jenkins also denied to a representative of the Jewish Daily Bulletin that if he polls 100,000 votes in Tuesday’s election the Nazis in this country will move their national headquarters from New York to Chicago and center their activities here.
Mr. Jenkins then appeals to the Jews of Chicago to “own or disown this pack of crooked Jews who have disgraced our city. You have permitted in silence this attack to be made upon me. Now I call upon you to let the people know whether you are on the side of decency or on the side of crooks who happen to be Jews.”
In his statement, Mr. Jenkins charges that “a ring of Jewish masters (in chancery), receivers and lawyers prey upon Jew and Gentile alike.”
DOUGLAS ANSWERS
Answering these charges, Prof. Douglas declared that “if Mr. Jenkins should poll a big vote in the municipal election he would use it as a springboard to carry out his Hitler policies on a State and national scale.”
Enumerating the many planks in the Jenkins platform which he charges are blatantly of Hitler derivation, Prof. Douglas goes on to say:
“Along with Hitlerism goes anti-Semitism and this is not absent from the Jenkins movement. Thus Mr. Jenkins is taking great pains to point out that certain corrupt officials in Chicago are Jews and he is, therefore, throwing the blame upon that race.
OPPOSES CORRUPTION
“I am as bitterly opposed to these corrupt officials as is Mr. Jenkins, but I also recognize that the corruptionists are not confined to the Jews, but characterize all races. There are, as a matter of fact, about as many Jews who are fighting the grafters as people of other races. Although I am of Anglo-Saxon stock, I resent any attempt to single out any one race for opprobrium and attack.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
